and you have senator john mccain,. jenna: roy blunt, they have said that they would not sign onto a filibuster before but now they are being swayed by opponents of hagel, saying you need to stick with us. bill: reid is talk pweugt i. don't know italking about it. our producer on scene is saying reid is saying this is not h it's not football we are trying to confirm a secretary of defense. then he goes onto say this it's shocking my colleagues would leave the country without a secretary of defense. just reading this. bret, cabinet level nominees rarely require 60 votes to overcome a threatened filibuster. >> reporter: it's only happened three times. bill: what it says here is two in history so far have been required to clear a cloture vote of 60 votes. it's rare. >> reporter: very rare. i don't think it's happened ever for secretary of defense. i'll have to check that. it's very rare. and senator reid is on the floor berating republicans for doing this. yet u know, opponents say there are a number of substantive reasons